Annika Sheaff earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance from The Juilliard School, where she had the privilege of working directly with Ohad Naharin, Paul Taylor, Ronald K. Brown, Jessica Lang and Jill Johnson. She received Juilliard’s InterArts Award for her community outreach work in New York, South Florida and South Africa as an original member of Artists Striving To End Poverty (ASTEP).
Upon graduation, she joined Pilobolus Dance Theater and toured the world performing over 550 times on four continents. As a main company member, Sheaff collaborated with Pilobolus founders Jonathan Wolken, Robby Barnett and Michael Tracy; dance artists Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak; as well as puppeteer Basil Twist, musician Dan Zanes, graphic artist Art Spiegelman, and the band OKGO.
In 2012 Sheaff joined GroundWorks Dance Theater where she has collaborated with David Shimotakahara, Amy Miller, Rosie Herrera, Loni Landon, Adam Barruch, Johannes Wieland, Doug Elkins, Noa Zuk, Kate Weare, Robert Moses and Eric Handman to create over fifteen new works for the company. She performed repertory by Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Gina Gibney, David Parker, Amy Miller and David Shimotakahara.
Sheaff has appeared on "America’s Got Talent," "Extra!," "Sesame Street," and on the cover of Dance Magazine. She helped to create and performed in "James and the Giant Peach," a musical directed by Graciela Daniele with choreography by Pilobolus. She performed in the national tour of "Radiolab Live: In The Dark." Sheaff performed three pieces of repertory by Aszure Barton in a national tour with Aszure Barton and Artists.
Her choreography has been shown in New York, Florida, California, Wyoming, Illinois, Ohio and South Africa. She was awarded a 2016 Creative Workforce Fellowship which allowed her to create seven dance films that debuted at The Cedar Lee Theater in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Sheaff has taught Pilobolus master classes worldwide. She has been adjunct dance faculty at Cuyahoga Community College since 2013 and adjunct faculty at Cleveland State University since 2016. Sheaff was appointed to the position of assistant professor of dance at Baldwin Wallace University in 2017.
